«How does it feel when you smile…» — Summary

VegimRomantic

How does it feel when you smile, or when you laugh so hard you cry How does it feel to get angry sceam so loud your voice hits the sky Do you hide from your mom, just to make her a little worried Do you like to take your time even when you're in a hurry Right or left? Which side do you wake up on I want to know your life Do you smile when you get hit on? Everytime you speak the words they spill like rain each word symbolizes another piece for me to gain You are my little puzzle One I like to piece your smile makes me wonder Did I make a face? I wonder, do you joke just to make somebody laugh or is it for the ploy that maybe you need to laugh Sometimes a joke you say it's all we have But when you smile after, I say you're all I have. A muse to me you are a perfection to the -im degree A nobody you are, because Nobody is perfect to me.

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

The speaker is fascinated by another person and wants to know everything about them: how they smile, how they get angry, which side of the bed they wake up on. The poem is built almost entirely from questions, which makes it feel like a crush talking, someone who is curious and a little shy about asking. The speaker calls the other person a "puzzle" and treats each spoken word as a piece to collect.

Underneath the playfulness there's some tenderness. The speaker wonders whether jokes are a way of hiding something, and says that when the person smiles afterward, "you're all I have." The ending plays with the title's name, Vegim, pointing to "-im" in "perfection" and "Nobody," and turns "Nobody is perfect" into a compliment: the person is a "nobody" only because they are perfect to the speaker. The mood is warm, light and affectionate, with a hint of vulnerability.

Read also

More by Vegim

All poems
SadVegim

Pills Ampersand

Swallowing pills, more than you need to take. Not knowing how to swim, but diving into a lake. It's a little bit sad, and a little bit ironic, how life can make us feel like we need some more tonic.
AnxiousVegim

* * *

I'd be okay if you sang out of tune, I'd be fine if you accidentally bit my tongue when we were making out I'd be okay if you didn't come to my house "soon" I'd even be fine if after a date you walked me out.
SadVegim

* * *

I'll repel my thoughts with a magnet, I'll get a double sided, stay positive, you get? I'll keep my feelings confided.